Malaysia's CIMB wraps up acquisition of RBS units

"This is an excellent opportunity to complete the build-up of our capabilities in Asia Pacific markets, and to do it quicker and less expensively than if we grew organically," a CIMB group chief executive Nazir Razak said in a statement.

"Top tier international investment banking is an important extension to CIMB Group’s ASEAN universal banking platform.

"CIMB’s expanded investment banking franchise will enable us to assist investors and businesses who want to move in and out of ASEAN or across Asia Pacific as a whole," added Nazir."

Since the acquisition of GK Goh Securities in 2005, CIMB’s investment banking franchise, including its securities operations, has been the market leader in ASEAN, CIMB said.

It has full presence in key ASEAN markets and representation in New York, London, Shanghai, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Colombo and Bahrain.

It also operates via partnerships in Taiwan, Korea and Australia.

"The addition of the RBS units will mean that, upon regulatory approvals, CIMB will have new on-shore presence in Taiwan and Australia, as well substantially enlarged operations in Hong Kong, India and China," the statement said.

"As RBS has decided not to sell its Korean entities, CIMB will seek to set up new operations in Korea soon. This deal decisively transforms CIMB into an Asia Pacific investment bank."

The firm will get seats on nine exchanges and partnerships in three.

"Our research will cover approximately 1,093 Asia Pacific-based companies and we will see a big increase in global institutional investor relationships," Nazir said..

"While we are still finalizing the full staff complement of the merged businesses, we are expecting between 350-400 RBS staff to join us."

The deal will see CIMB paying RBS a gross amount of approximately 88.4 million sterling pounds (431.8 millionMalaysian ringgit) and injecting a further 85.5 million sterling pounds (417.6 million ringgit) of new capital into various operating entities.